Please Build The Factory Before We Explain The Rule

I can follow the promise up to a point. The government wants more routers made in America. TP-Link proposes American assembly. There should now be a fairly ordinary conversation about what counts as enough American manufacturing.

That last part seems to be the difficult one.

TP-Link says there are no published percentages telling manufacturers how much domestic production qualifies them for an exemption from the foreign-router ban. Ars Technica reports that the company has proposed nearly $1 billion in U.S. investment, contingent on approval to sell its new routers. The investment is a substantial answer to a question whose marking instructions have not been supplied.

There are genuine security questions here. TP-Link routers have been compromised in attacks, and Republican state attorneys general have sued over alleged misrepresentations about the company’s China ties and security risks. TP-Link says it is independent of foreign-government control and will not share customer network data with foreign governments or unauthorized parties. Those competing claims require examination. A factory address, however impressive, cannot examine them on anyone’s behalf.

That is where the reassurance starts to separate into two reassurances. Domestic assembly is presented as a route toward approval. Approval also requires a Defense or Homeland Security determination about national-security risk. The first is a location. The second is a finding. They may be relevant to each other, but one does not become the other because a press release puts them in the same paragraph.

We recently looked at a technology restriction that had to inspect what was inside the box. This box will still contain imported components. TP-Link says many parts are unavailable domestically, a problem it says affects other manufacturers too. So “American” cannot simply mean every component has never crossed a border. Somewhere a threshold must exist, even if the applicant has not been allowed to meet it in print.

Other router makers have received exemptions. TP-Link wants consistent standards. That request does not establish that its products deserve approval; it does establish a reasonable desire to know what the application is an application for.

The proposed assembly could start as early as 2027, depending on the regulatory outcome. The announcement therefore offers a factory schedule conditional on permission, in support of obtaining permission partly associated with manufacturing plans. I am sure this can be resolved. I would merely prefer the rule to arrive before the ribbon.

Until then, the country has an unusual approach to industrial certainty. Bring a large investment proposal. Describe the jobs. Name the town. Then wait to discover whether the place you propose to build is sufficiently here.